Three members of a home-grown terror ring who conspired to attack the Quantico U.S. Marine Corps base and foreign targets were sentenced Friday to between 15 and 45 years in federal prison.

Hysen Sherifi, 27, will serve 45 years in prison; Ziyad Yaghi, 23, got nearly 32 years; and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 24, was sentenced to 15 years. They faced the possibility of life in prison. Each said they would appeal their convictions and claimed innocence. Dozens of members of Raleigh’s Muslim community made the five-hour round-trip to coastal New Bern to witness the hearing for the men who supporters believe were unjustly convicted.

Defense attorneys argued for lesser sentences since the men were convicted of discussing terrorism rather than committing terrorist acts.

“I believe I am innocent. There was no conspiracy,” said Serifi, who called his guilty verdict unfair and prosecutors tyrants.

But U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan said the men went beyond talk to planning violence.

Yaghi was a “self-starter” in pursuing holy war against those deemed un-Islamic and brought several potential jihadi recruits to ringleader Daniel Patrick Boyd, whose rural Johnston County home was a warehouse of weapons, Flanagan said. Yaghi traveled to Jordan and Israel to look for avenues to join other militants and to scout targets for an attack.

Sherifi discussed an attack on the Quantico, Va., Marine Corps base with Boyd, a Muslim convert who had lived on the base as a child with his Marine officer father.

Hassan used his Facebook account and Internet forums to post his own comments and videos by others encouraging Muslims to fight nonbelievers and Muslims who did not agree with their desire to establish mandatory religious law, prosecutors said.

Hassan also attempted to contact Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim preacher and al-Qaida propagandist, and emailed a co-conspirator a copy of Al-Awlaki’s tract “44 ways to support Jihad,” Flanagan said. Al-Awlaki was killed by an American airstrike in September in the mountains of Yemen.

“You willingly became part of the Internet propaganda machine that is a canker on this world,” Flanagan said. “You were prey, and a component, of something that was incredibly harmful and destructive.”

The trio is among eight men who federal investigators say raised money, stockpiled weapons and trained in preparation for jihadist attacks. The plot “had a specific purpose — to inspire others to adhere to radical Islam and if you did not you were fair game,” prosecutor Jason Kellhofer said.

Hassan called his actions stupid, but not a crime.

“I did post some highly inflammatory things on the Internet, but I am no terrorist,” he said. He rejected Flanigan’s sentence, and his father, Aly Hassan, accused the judge and prosecutors of targeting Muslims.

“You’re prosecuting Islam. The judge should be sitting here with the government,” Aly Hassan said, pointing to the prosecutors.

Yaghi was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism and conspiracy to carry out attacks overseas. Sherifi was convicted of both crimes, two counts of firearms possession, and conspiracy to kill federal officers or employees for plotting the Quantico attack. Hassan was convicted of providing material support to terrorists, but acquitted of a charge of conspiracy to carry out attacks overseas.

Boyd pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges in February and has yet to be sentenced. Two of his sons pleaded guilty to similar charges and were sentenced to eight years and nine years in prison.

Another defendant, Anes Subasic, is set to be tried separately, while an eighth indicted man is at large and believed to be in Pakistan.

More background posts on the 7 Muslims living in the U.S. who were plotting jihad on Americans, here, including the Muslim spokeswoman for the ringleader of this jihadi crew as we’ve written about before:

Readers might remember Khalilah Sabra – she is the Muslim convert who was recruited by Osama bin Laden’s mentor to join the mujahideen fighting the Russians. And she went. She even recently called bin Laden a “Visionary.” Her bosses at Muslim Brotherhood-founded MAS then issued a retraction to smooth that over.

Don’t worry you won’t hear a peep about these three on the major media outlets. Only thing they talk about now are a few Marines who were on video mutilating dead taliban. When will the media start to cover what the Taliban do to little girls and their schools, or to those who they accuse of being spies for the government or US troops. Why not show how they chop off heads and stone to death anyone who disagrees with them. Never happen.

I say Yea for the Marines who pissed on the taliban; just goes to show you the msm is stupider than stupid. I would say let the msm idiots trade places with the Brave Marines and then see what they would do in the same situation.

Nothing is EVER said about the brutality of the islam talibans on non-muslims, our Soldiers, etc. It is ok to cut off heads, booby trap dead soldiers, blow up vehicles and many innocents, some of their own.

But that is ok, let’s make a BIG deal about pissing on the taliban; just goes to show you what obamas influence has been on the state dept and his continuing kowtowing to the muslims.

The marines should have pissed into the cell phone that sneaked the video too… to stop the leak… obviously NOT a friend of the marines! What else would they do? Maybe kill them?

If everything were made public… pics of the victims the taliban killed… etc. perhaps we could piss on’em… maybe behind closed doors… LOL

I think all of our ammunition should be dipped in Pig Fat in its production process… and made known that ALL of our ordinances have parts dipped in Pig Fat in them… IIRC, they would not like to be shot with such a bullet and stop fighting… Why can’t we try it? We might like it!

[…] arrests or guilty pleas/verdicts/sentencing in Michigan, Florida, Jersey, Alabama, Kansas City, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, 2 more in North Carolinastan, more in Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, […]

[…] arrests or guilty pleas/verdicts/sentencing in Michigan, Florida, Jersey, Alabama, Kansas City, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, 2 more in North Carolinastan, more in Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, […]